How to use の ( = no) : one ( indefinite pronoun)

Hi everyone!First, I will be on vacation until August so I won’t be able to make new lessons and answer your questions for a while.So this will be my last lesson before the vacation. I hope you all have a great summer vacation as well!

OK, today we will study an indefinite pronoun, の ( = no)の(=no) has many functions, such as a nominalizer, preposition, etc. but we will focus on the function as an indefinite pronoun today.

37 Comments

My apologies in advance.
Since I’m not sure in which article I should ask, I’m going to ask here.
I’m kind of confused with the usage of ある/いる＋の
I’m having this problem to translate informal verbal conversation.
“Do even you remember where the chamber is?”
I used this in reflex of my brain.
「室はどこにあるか、覚えてる？」
Then after a while I felt odd, and thought of other sentences, that maybe I should use のas well. And it became,
「室はどこにあるのか、覚えてる？」
But after reading some articles about usage of のandこと, it even confused me and made me created other confusing options, such as:
「室はどこにあること、覚えてる？」
「室はどこにあるのこと、覚えてる？」

Would you mind to tell me which/what is the right one and why?
Thank you!

Maggie Sensei! I love your site so much! I’m learning a lot here about the various usages much better than from formal grammar references. Thank you so much for all your efforts.

I have a huge, huge request. The usages of “koto” and “no”, especially as nominalizers, still stump me and I don’t know how to put them naturally in writing or speech. I understand the -kotogaaru, and how “no” is used as you explained here in the lesson, but the topic marker/nominalizer issue is still very hard to put in active usage. I would give anything for you to put up an explanation for these two constructions, because I’m learning the best from your format: lots of example sentences that point out the subtleties in meaning and multiple usages without all the confusing grammatical jargon. You have no idea how the saseru/saserareru and “wake” lessons cleared up much of the confusion I had.

Hello Enjuchan,
I am very happy to know you are learning a lot here.
Actually the usage of “koto” is on top of the request list.
Please give me some time and I promise that I will make a lesson for you sometime.

Hello Kebbin.
In this case な is an abbreviated form of である（／だ） used in attributive sentences. The full form of なのは would be: であることは.
Therefore 名詞＋なのは means “The…is…” (1-2); “What [someone]…is…” (3-4); “…that/the fact that…” (5-6), etc.

EX)
1. …について問題なのは… (=The problem about…is…)
2. 一番大切なのは… (=The most important thing is…)
3. 私が心配なのは… (=What I concern is…)
4. あなたに必要なのは休みです (=What you need is a holiday)
5. あなたが優しい人なのは分かっています (=I know that you are a nice person)
6. 私があのレストランを大好きなのは、料理が美味しくて安いからです (=I love that restaurant because they serve delicious and cheap food there = The fact that I love that restaurant is because they serve delicious and cheap food there)

これは、ブタ!の!世界だッ (=It’s the pig!’s! world)
ブタ!なのは!あんただよ (=!The one who is the! pig is you, not me! / You ARE the pig, not me!)

こんにちはマギー先生！
すみませんが、「の」の使い方について質問があります…
In my text book, I have a sentence to sort properly and the answer the book gives is:
私は少し苦みのあるコーヒーが好きです。
My answer was:
私は少し苦みあるコーヒーのが好きです。
I thought when you use 「の」as nominalizer, always follows a particle. I don’t understand why here it follows 「ある」。
Could you please help me a little?
どうもありがとうございます！

How would I say something like, I got you? As in I got your back. The best word I could find for this for tsukamaeta, but it seems to be more like I caught you. Great lessons by the way! please continue!

Could I get that in Romanji? I barely started studying hiragana. you are right! I got your back is similar to what I’m looking for. I’m meeting my girl at the airport in a couple of days and would really like to surprise her with this.

Hi Maggie!
I’m not sure is this the right place for lesson request but i will try
Now im studying : てたまらない , てならない , てしょうがない and てかなわない can you please explain what is the difference bettewen them because i don’t get ir ><"""

@PukiPuki
Hi, PukiPuki! Hisashiburi!
You can leave a comment, request or message in any comment section. Right now I’m on vacation but when I come back to Japan, I will add your request to my “to do” list. I have 40 lessons to release but when I have a chance I will make a lesson for you. I might make it on Facebook first. Please wait. I think it’s a nice theme.

Sorry for the late response. I’m on vacation right now so I won’t be able to give you all the detailed information but you can start super basic words series. All my lessons are random so basically you can start any lessons with “beginners’ tag.

@Linh
OK, nice try!
Let me see. Your sentence :
昼ごはんの果物が食べたのなんですか？
Since you used the subject marker が after, it sounds like “What did the fruit for lunch eat?”
You want to say what kind of fruits did you eat for lunch?
If you want to use の，how about
昼ご飯に食べたのはどんな果物ですか？